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In this article I will try to make an overview of the best miniatures here
on CoolMiniOrNot in 2004. But before I start I want to explain how this artcile
has been compiled. Because there are tens of submission to CMON each day, it
was impossible to browse through all the images of 2004. Therefore, I have chosen
to filter those miniatures which scored higher than 9 points. From the remaining
500 pictures I have made a small selection of paintjobs which I thought were
ground-breaking and exceptional. Of course you will find some personal favorites
of mine here, but in general I've tried to give an objective overview.
Part 1: January - March
A lot of people will agree with me that the first three months of 2004 brought
a lot of great minis, but the public's favorite will be Cyril's amazing Widowmaker
from Privateer Press. Another high-scoring mini, although less impressive,
was thomasdavid's Games Workshop
Dark Elf.
Talking about Games Workshop, some of their new armies did quite well on CMON,
especially the beastmen (for example Dragon
Ogre Shaggoth by Micro Art Studios and the regular Champion
by Prri). I think together with Celestine the Living Saint, the Beastman
Champion was one of the most popular GW model among painters last year.

2004's number three submission: Games
Workshop Dark Elf by thomasdavid.
Another popular GW army were the new Brettonians. With lots of room for freehand,
it's no surprise that paintjobs like Micro
Art Studio's Standard Bearer scored very high. And although Goatman lost
his first place on CMON at the end of 2003, he only uploaded a few pictures
this year, for example this Brettonian.
2004 was a year of change. A lot of new stars have risen, you could see their
paintjobs in the top 10 7-days every few weeks. Ex-Rackham painter Arkaal amazed
everyone with his smooth blendings and subtle freehand details, for example
the Griffin Magistrate, Guerrier
de Sang and Sin Assyris.

Another rising star from France is Thomas. In february he already made heads
turn in his direction with his very nice Nurgle paintjobs (for example the Nurgle
Champion and his amazing Green
Knight conversion, but his best piece of work still had to come...
With some amazing releases by Games Workshop and Rackham, the smaller miniature
companies still had to wait a bit longer to have their newest releases picked
up by the public. But to conclude this first part of the overview, I want to
show everyone the second-best Privateer Press miniature from the first part
of 2004: Fluffy's Menoth Paladin.

[pagebreak]
Part 2: April - June
April kicked off with last year's most amazing conversions. Germany's finest,
Holger Schmidt, combined his painting, conversion and scenery skills to create
a small, dynamic diorama with Eyriss,
Mage Hunter in the center. Holger's fellow countryman Goatman also showed
his conversion and painting talent with his Sisters
Of Battle diorama.
Russian painting goddess Alexi_Z was almost unknown in the beginning of 2004,
but pieces like her Ork Shaman
On Brontops, Dragon Ogre Shaggoth
and Slaanesh Champion were
about to change this in no-time.

One of the most original submissions of 2004: Eyriss,
Mage Hunter by Holger Schmidt
Many consider Games Day France to have the toughest Golden Demon painting competition
of them all. French masterpainter Cyril clearly shows this with his golden demon
winning Nurgle Champion and
silver Gretch Tank. Some other
top painters from France include Allan C (Nurgle
...